You know what they say, championships are won with great defenses.
Strangely enough, that wasn’t the case this season. Juventus had a better (!!!) defensive record than Serie A. champions Inter Milan this season, as we conceded 34 goals compared to Inter’s 35. The Bianconeri had the third-best defense in the league after Como (29) and Roma (31). If it weren’t for the meltdown in the final four games of the season (in which Juve conceded 5 goals and collected only 5 out of a possible 12 points), we would
have had the league’s best backline.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
At the end of the day, we didn’t do these things and we deservedly ended in a miserable sixth place in the league. Let’s review how Juventus’ defenders performed in the 2025-26 season.
Gleison Bremer — 6.5
Minutes played: 2,569; Appearances: 31; Yellow cards: 5; Red cards: 0; Goals: 4; Assists: 3
It was a stop-start season for a player who was once voted best defender in the league. The big story about Bremer was that he finally returned from his terrible ACL injury that he sustained in October 2024 in the Champions League match against RB Leipzig. The club was very careful with his recovery over the summer, so much so that Igor Tudor decided not to play him at all during last summer’s Club World Cup even though he traveled to the U.S. with the team.
He enjoyed a steady, successful return from injury at the start of the season. He showed the type of form that explained why some strikers describe playing against Bremer like going to the dentist. He even picked up two assists in the blockbuster 4-3 victory over Inter in September.
But his form suffered significantly after he underwent meniscus surgery at the end of 2025, likely connected to the ACL injury he just recovered from, that kept him out of action for a few months. When he returned, he wasn’t quite the same. He gave away a few penalties, lost more battles against strikers, and started making more mistakes (in and out of possession) than we’ve ever seen him make.
Nobody questions his raw ability and knowledge of the art of defending. But it’s pretty clear to me that fitness issues and (the aftermath of) his ACL injury has set him back significantly. He’s not quite the same anymore nor as consistent as he used to be but it feels like he just needs to regain full fitness to get back to his former self.
Unfortunately, he will not get the summer off to do this as Carlo Ancelotti selected him as part of his 26-man Brazil squad for the World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Andrea Cambiaso — 5.5
Minutes played: 3,609; Appearances: 47; Yellow cards: 6; Red cards: 1; Goals: 3; Assists: 5
Cambiaso is arguably one of the most polarizing Juventus players in the team. And that’s quite the accomplishment given that Lloyd Kelly used to hold this prize.
Cambiaso is the embodiment of the old-Juventus/new-Juventus battle. In the “old” Juventus, a player like Cambiaso would likely not have a place given that he’s a player that is more known for his offensive abilities than his defensive ones. But Cambiaso is the player for a Juventus that we once wanted to have: a modern and progressive Juventus that is more adventurous than defensive. He’s the player that embodied the team that we thought we would have under Thiago Motta.
But given all the managerial turnover, we’ve returned to a slightly more pragmatic Juventus and a player like Cambiaso seems to be stuck between the two visions of the club. The most infuriating thing about Cambiaso is that he seems to be a player that doesn’t really excel at anything. This season, he showed that he’s decent offensively and has good passing range, but doesn’t have enough goal contributions to really stand out in that respect.
Remarkably, Pierre Kalulu had more goal contributions than Cambiaso despite the Frenchman being distinctly less offensively-minded than the Italian. More specifically, their goal contributions per minute played are essentially identical, too.
Defensively, he was alright but struggled badly against speedy wingers like Gustav Isaksen from Lazio and in the air on set pieces. This is in contrast to someone like Emil Holm who isn’t great offensively but you can trust to be strong defensively. I’m not sure we can trust Cambiaso to be a 100% wingback/fullback for the team from a defensive perspective.
This season he continued his occasional hybrid role as a floating central midfielder to help out in possession but, again, his goal contributions were so low that you really wonder what the point/benefit of that was.
I really don’t think Cambiaso is a bad player, but he/management really has to decide what he wants to be and commit to it. Does he want to be a central midfielder? Fine, then commit to it 100%. Does he want to be a fullback/wingback? Great, then let’s (try to) work on the defensive side of his game. But this floating around between two positions in which he’s OK in both but great in neither is not helping anyone and contributed to a mediocre season for the Italian.
Pierre Kalulu — 9
Minutes played: 4,381; Appearances: 49; Yellow cards: 2; Red cards: 1 (undeserved); Goals: 2; Assists: 7
The brightest spark of the season in the Bianconeri defense. There is little the Frenchman cannot do and he showed this again in a stellar season in defense.
The most remarkable aspect of Kalulu’s season was the sheer volume of minutes he played and the extraordinary level of consistency he displayed. He started every single game this season he was available for and was subbed off only once all season (the second leg vs. Galatasaray). I initially rated him 8.5 but gave him an extra 0.5 because I don’t think people understand the physical and mental demands of playing that many minutes — especially in such a long season — in modern, top-level football and yet still play so consistently and commit so few mistakes.
Defensively, he was as close to perfect as you can get. Like Kelly, he’s quick but remains disciplined in position and doesn’t use his speed to compensate for being out of position. Also like Kelly, the most significant negative mark on his record was a scandalous refereeing decision in a crucial match.
But his seven(!) assists this season, which mostly came from crosses, shows that you can be defensively solid and still help offensively as well through pin-point crossing. I’m glad that the brief experiment of playing Kalulu at wingback was indeed just that: brief. His best position is clearly as a right-sided centerback/right back where he doesn’t have to aggressively push high up the pitch and can prioritize defending.
One of the best transfers we’ve made in a long time and, once again, the type of transfer that we used to make when we still had our sh!t together.
Federico Gatti — 6
Minutes played: 1,656; Appearances: 28; Yellow cards: 3; Red cards: 0; Goals: 4; Assists: 0
It was a season of stagnation for our beloved bricklayer Federico Gatti. Given the stage of his career and his age (27), this was a season in which you expected him to be a definite starter. While the Italian did have a few injuries this season, I still expected him to play more.
He started the season well and featured frequently under Igor Tudor. But after the club sacked Tudor and hired Spalletti, he played far less frequently. Granted, this coincided with a significant meniscus injury that kept him out of action for over a month.
Once he returned from injury, he was rarely in the starting lineup and never really stood out. His performances were acceptable and he has certainly become less rash in his challenges and learned to control his impulses. He remains a physical, intense man-marker who has also slowly become more comfortable making late, overlapping runs into attack to provide a surprise physical presence in the opposition box.
Nevertheless, it felt like a season in which Gatti neither improved nor regressed, which means that this will be a strange summer for him. Will Juventus be willing to invest another season into a reasonably young player who hasn’t really progressed with the hope that he will take his performances to the next level? Or will the club cash in on Gatti given the loss of Champions League revenue and that he still has decent market value?
Lloyd Kelly — 8
Minutes played: 3,947; Appearances: 46; Yellow cards: 6; Red cards: 1; Goals: 2; Assists: 2
Lloyd Kelly has had one of the most remarkable turnarounds I’ve seen of a Juventus player in recent history. He has gone from the absolute laughing stock and source of mockery and embarrassment at the club to a guaranteed starter in defense.
Kelly is quick but, unlike Juan Cabal, does not use that as an excuse to get caught out of position. He’s surprisingly strong and rarely gets beaten in physical/aerial battles with strikers. With an 88.6% average pass success rate across all competitions, he also showed that he is reliable on the ball and in his passing. Most importantly, this season he showed a skill that few other Juventus players displayed as well as he did: consistency. Along with Kalulu, Kelly was the most consistent defender in the team and rarely, if ever, made a mistake.
The only red card he received this season came in the second leg game against Galatasaray and while this may show up as a blemish on his record, we all remember that that decision was a complete disgrace.
I never thought I would say this but Kelly has become one of our most important defenders in the team along with Kalulu and Bremer. They are the players that we must build our defense around for the years to come.
Juan Cabal — s/v
Minutes played: 514; Appearances: 19; Yellow cards: 3; Red cards: 1; Goals: 2; Assists: 1
What a disappointing season for Juan Cabal. He played too few minutes for me to give him a rating, but if I could it would likely be less than 5. He played so little because he was plagued by muscle injuries all season but even when he played he was a huge liability.
From the disaster show against Galatasaray to the clumsy penalty foul in the thrilling 3-2 victory over Bodø/Glimt, Cabal’s performances were littered with errors. It was a sharp change from the start of Cabal’s career at Juventus when he started very brightly before, again, suffering from a serious injury. The Colombian got caught out of position too frequently and while his speed, which is one of his biggest strengths, often allows him to compensate for that, it happened too often in the games he played for us to be able to rely on him.
Add that to the fact that he has been injured for essentially half the time he has been at Juventus and I think it’s highly likely that Cabal will at least be loaned out to another club this summer. The potential is there, but he needs a season of injury-free, consistent football to return to the player that impressed so much at Hellas Verona and, initially, at Juventus.
Emil Holm — s/v
Minutes played: 243; Appearances: 8; Yellow cards: 0; Red cards: 0; Goals: 0; Assists: 0
Emil Holm recently announced that he will miss this summer’s World Cup due to injury, which sums up his brief loan spell at Juventus so far. He arrived in January from Bologna in a swap deal in which João Mário went the other way but suffered a serious calf injury in his first appearance for Juventus in the Derby d’Italia against Inter. He was limited to eight appearances for the Bianconeri that, in total, amounted to 3 full games in 4 months.
However, in the handful of games that he did play, I liked what I saw. His standout performance was in the hard-fought 1-0 away win against Atalanta in which he defended excellently. In general, Holm seemed to be one of those low-risk, decent-reward transfers that we used to make when we still knew what the hell we were doing were a well-run club. He’s physical, has a surprisingly good shot, focuses on defense first (ahem, Cambiaso), and can help out a little in attack as well.
He’s not a world-beater, but the most important thing is that he is defensively very solid in what is currently our weakest position: wingback. We don’t need a Trent Alexander-Arnold in that position to bomb forward in attack; we need someone who will out muscle wingers and make sure the wings are locked down. If he can stay fit (and stay at the club, I suppose), Holm has little in his way to becoming a first-choice wingback.
João Mário — s/v
Minutes played: 373; Appearances: 13; Yellow cards: 1; Red cards: 0; Goals: 0; Assists: 1
I actually forgot to include him until I wrote the segment about Holm and then remembered that he was part of the swap deal with Holm. Then I thought, eh I’ll just exclude him because he probably didn’t play that much anyway. To my shock and surprise, he actually played more minutes than Holm!
While I praised Kalulu and Holm for being the types of transfers that the club frequently made when we were in our glory days, João Mário is exactly the opposite. A confusing, illogical signing made to get a quick (and small) accounting boost for the books. I truly have little useful to say about Mário because he was just so forgettable. Out of his 13 appearances, less than half (5) were for 30 minutes or longer. He seemed to be promising in attack but to go back to the point I made about Cambiaso, we just don’t need a player like that right now. At best, he would be a backup to Cambiaso. Thankfully, we swapped Mário for a player better suited to our needs right now (Holm) although it remains to be seen if either deal will be made permanent.
